Ronald D. Moore is a name you might know from, oh, let’s see here, Carnivale, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and, oh yeah, Battlestar Galactica. And apparently he’ll be getting a new series, called Helix, courtesy of SyFy.

Helix becomes interesting beyond Moore’s involvement when you find out that Moore did a pass on that Thing prequel, or remake, or remakequel, or whatever the hell that movie was supposed to be. That’s because, according to Deadline:

…is about a team of scientists investigating a possible disease outbreak at an Arctic research facility who find themselves trying to protect the world from annihilation. The project, which eyes a debut later this year, was written on spec by Cameron Porsandeh who serves as co-executive producer.

While that sounds a bit, well, vague, we’ll be curious to see what spin Moore can put on the concept. As we all know, Moore can handle paranoia and fear like nobody’s business, so if anybody can turn The Thing into a TV series, it’s this guy.

If this does come together, it’ll come together quickly: By all accounts, SyFy wants this show on the air this year. And it won’t be the last, either. Apparently SyFy is skipping pilots altogether this season and just handing out episode orders. In other words, this likely won’t be the last interesting news we hear from the network.

First episode: new scientist meets the lab’s staff, ends with darkened lab and hands dropping a test tube.
Second episode: people start dying, attributed to shape-shifter disease thing.
Episodes 3-12: scientists conduct endless pseudo-trial, taking turns accusing each other of being shape-shifter-disease-carrier.
Episode 13: Writers pick name out of hat as the shape-shifter-disease-carrier.
Episode 14: The survivors reach the research station they have been trudging toward. Turns out they’re not really in the Antarctic. Writers throw darts to determine whether they are on an alien planet, in the Amazon or Times Square.